AgricultureID

Cultivar · Potato cultivar

Bintje

Bintje is a yellow-fleshed Dutch potato bred by Kornelis Lieuwes de Vries in Friesland in the early twentieth century, historically one of the most important frying and all-purpose varieties in north-west Europe.

Dated referenceLast reviewed: 2026-07-12Updated: 2026-07-12
Illustrative diagram · AgricultureID (original)

Record

Cultivar / variety
Variety of
Potato
Botanical taxon
Solanum tuberosum
Type
Cultivar
Breeding method
Cross-breeding
Origin
Friesland, Netherlands, Netherlands
Breeder / institution
Kornelis Lieuwes de Vries (schoolteacher and amateur breeder), Friesland
Registry status
Listed · European Union · as of 2026-07-12
Registries
Adaptation
A temperate maincrop grown as a cool-season crop like potato generally; sensitive to frost and to heat during tuber bulking. Grown on the loose, well-drained soils preferred by potato generally; no unusual soil requirement is documented here.
Intended use
French fries, Table (boiling), Processing

Registry listing or variety protection is jurisdiction- and date-specific and does not by itself indicate current commercial availability, universal cultivation approval, patent status, or a recommendation.

Bintje is a yellow-fleshed potato bred in the Netherlands by Kornelis Lieuwes de Vries, a Frisian schoolteacher and amateur potato breeder, in the early twentieth century. It was reportedly named after one of his pupils. Bintje became one of the most widely grown potatoes in north-west Europe and a benchmark variety for frying.

The tubers are long-oval with yellow skin and flesh and a relatively floury, all-purpose texture. Bintje is strongly associated with the production of fried potatoes (frites) in Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, and it is also used as a general table and processing potato.

Background and identity

Bintje was produced by cross-breeding by K. L. de Vries in the Dutch province of Friesland in the early 1900s and went on to become one of Europe’s most influential potato varieties. Its yellow flesh and frying quality made it a standard for fried-potato production across north-west Europe.

Skin and flesh
Yellow
Tuber shape
Long-oval
Cooking character
Relatively floury / all-purpose; well suited to frying

Registry status and cultivation

Bintje is admitted to the EU Common Catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species, which permits its marketing within the European Union. Listing is a marketing permission rather than a recommendation and is version- and date-specific. As a maincrop it is grown as a cool-season crop like potato generally, and its cooking and agronomic behaviour vary with region, season, and storage.

Official variety registration

Entries recorded for this denomination in official variety registers. Registration is a legal fact about marketing or ownership, separate from where the variety is grown or whether seed is available.

Current entries (5)
RegisterStatusSpecies as publishedRegister reference
CanadaVariety registrationPermission to marketNational RegistrationPotatoPotato (Tuber) — the register publishes a crop kind, not a botanical name1933
FranceNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/FR/SOLAN_TUB/0090481
LuxembourgNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/LU/SOLAN_TUB/LU_AGR_109.0_100026
NetherlandsNational list entry — agricultural speciesPermission to marketRegisteredSolanum tuberosum L.NLI/AGR/NL/SOLAN_TUB/246459
United KingdomNational list entryPermission to marketAwarded GB and NI variety listingsSOLANUM TUBEROSUM L.4/143

Entries that are no longer current

Each register decides separately, so these are grouped by instrument and jurisdiction and never combined into one timeline.

AustriaNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

DenmarkNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

FinlandNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Expireddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Expired” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

ItalyNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

SpainNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

SwedenNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

SwitzerlandNational list entry

  • Observed 2026-08-27Surrendereddate not published by the sourceThe EU Plant Variety Portal — national list entry records this entry as “Surrendered” and publishes no date for the change.
    • These registers publish a grant or listing date but no date for an entry ceasing to be current, so when this ended is not established here.

History records what an official source published at a point in time. Where the source states the date a change took effect, that date is shown; where it does not, only the date AgricultureID observed the change is shown, and it is labelled as such.

Each history is specific to one jurisdiction and one legal instrument. A right that expired in one country says nothing about a listing in another, and they are never combined.

A variety registration permits marketing; a plant variety protection right is ownership. They are granted by different bodies under different law and are never added together.

Entries are matched to this cultivar by identical denomination and by matching botanical species. Registers do not publish a global variety identifier, so a same-name entry in the same species could in principle be a distinct variety.

Registration is jurisdiction-specific, is granted under a particular legal instrument, and changes. A variety absent from a register may still be grown; confirm the current position with the responsible authority before acting on it. How registration is recorded.

Relationships

Evidence-backed connections in the knowledge graph.

Adapted to climate

Adapted to soil

Scope & limitations

Geographic scope: Best documented in north-west Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, France); also grown elsewhere. Culinary and agronomic behaviour is region- and season-specific.

Climate context: Temperate cool-season maincrop.

  • Cooking and agronomic behaviour is region- and season-specific and varies with storage.
  • Registry/listing status is jurisdiction- and date-specific; confirm against the current EU Common Catalogue.
  • The exact year of introduction is reported inconsistently in the literature and is therefore not stated.

Sources

This article draws on the following authoritative sources. See our sources & methodology for how they are selected.

  1. [1]EU Common Catalogue of varieties of agricultural plant species (opens in a new tab)

    European Commission — Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety

    Authoritative

    Cited for: EU Common Catalogue listing of the variety

    Type:
    Official registry
    Jurisdiction:
    European Union
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  2. [2]GRIN-Global / National Plant Germplasm System (opens in a new tab)

    USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS)

    Authoritative

    Cited for: Solanum tuberosum classification and germplasm context

    Type:
    Official registry
    Jurisdiction:
    United States / Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12
  3. [3]Encyclopaedia Britannica (opens in a new tab)

    Encyclopaedia Britannica

    Moderate

    Cited for: General background on the variety (secondary)

    Type:
    Reference database
    Jurisdiction:
    Global
    Accessed:
    2026-07-12

Related topics

Crops